Neverland
by Lily Maxwell The Dark Angel
Summary: Neverland. Where you and I can stay like this, forever. -Post KHII-RikuSora-
1. one

It sounded better when it was only an idea. Albeit I was half-asleep when I thought it all up.

Probably done to hell and back, but I'm an inspired girl who can't let go of the game. All of that enthusiasm had to go somewhere.

Here hoping you enjoy.

* * *

**_o_** n e

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Sora had been a lot more _musical_ than he ever remembered.

Humming, or whistling, or singing in a little voice to himself.

It wasn't odd, by any means. It was unexpected, if anything. But truly, in every aspect, a _Sora_ thing. As if his cheerfulness and his grins had been amplified by a thousand times. It amused him to no end, and sometimes he felt like he would never, ever be able to stop smiling as long as he stayed by Sora's side.

A part of him whispered, timidly, about how he intended to never really leave his side again.

He dismissed it with a mental shake of his hand.

Irritating thoughts that tried to make him think too much, when all he really wanted was to enjoy Sora's presence. Simply, honestly, and fully. All he really wanted was to poke his friend, and bemusedly ask him what's gotten him so singing-like, and watch him grin back at him and tell him about one of his great adventures.

And so he did.

"I took part in a musical!"

"Did you now?" His head tilted to the side, a smile danced on his lips. He was too eager to tell all of his stories, every time. And even though Riku should have been there with him at some of them, even though he antagonized his best friend, Sora was _eager_ to tell him all of them.

Every time.

"Yup! I sang to a _whole _Kingdom! Under the sea! And Donald – _Riku, you should have seen him!_" He laughed so good-naturedly.

"Oh, I sure would have liked to see_ that_. I hope the people – er, merpeople? Weren't too offended." He wrinkled his nose playfully. Sora laughed again.

"I think everyone was having too much fun to notice."

Like the two of them were, at that very moment. Alone in a classroom, talking silly things about faraway worlds as the sun shone brightly on the island. And everyone else enjoyed the breeze, and enjoyed clear sky, while the two of them stayed inside the hot building, taking extra classes for all the time they spent away, saving worlds.

Together, even at failing school.

"Do you remember Neverland? Did you see me fly?" His blue eyes were so bright, they were so big and humorous. His arms were folded on Riku's desk and he sat backwards on his chair, and his face was so close to his. Personal space almost meant nothing. Riku was still smiling, laying his cheek against his right palm, when he apologized and said that he wasn't there.

_I was too busy taking Kairi away from you._

"We're going back there! I'm going to ask King Mickey! You _have_ to go there and fly, Riku, it's so… I can't describe it!"

Not a single mention of those times of struggle in their friendship. Sometimes he wondered if he tried his best to forget them, or if to him, it mattered nothing anymore. If all of it was too much, or if all of it was too little.

But hard thinking was not something Riku wanted then.

"And how exactly are you going to contact him?" A silver eyebrow raised. "Pigeons?"

"No!" He beamed, thinking himself brilliant. "A message in a bottle!"

Eyes like the Caribbean sea met eyes like the sky.

He thought his friend was as much of a hero as he was naïve.

"You're going to send a message to King Mickey. Through the sea."

Sora huffed. He could feel his breath touch his skin. _Too close_, he thought for a split second.

He did not move.

"It worked with Kairi."

His voice was lower. It was less enthusiastic, it was less optimistic._ Maybe it was too much_, he thought. But the pout on his face made him think, _maybe it was nothing._

"Right. So you're just going to cross your fingers and hope he answers."

A vibrant nod.

He poked his forehead.

"You're stupid."

"You're mean."

"I'm not mean, I'm realistic."

"You're not realistic, you just like teasing me."

"I wouldn't tease you if you weren't so… _teasable._"

"That's not even a word!"

"See? You're so bad you're not even in the dictionary."

Sora picked one of his books and hit him on the head with it. He laughed when it didn't hurt a bit. When the teacher arrived, Sora whimpered and attempted to sit on his chair – the right way – as fast as he could. He almost fell in the process. The teacher looked amused, and Riku chuckled behind his hand.

_It's like nothing changed at all._

Sora stretched, his arms – longer than he remembered, more muscular than he remembered – high in the air as he offered him a quick sideway grin.

Always a contact.

_Or maybe everything__ has changed._


	2. two

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_**t**_ w o

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"Did you notice you two are never apart anymore?"

Sora placed the bottle gently on the water, allowing his shorts to get slightly wet as the waves came and went. Even with his back turned to him, he _knew_ he was smiling.

Always smiling.

"Sora spends time with the others too."

Kairi laughed. When her laughter met the wind, it almost sounded like beautiful bells. Still the bright light, she was. She made everything feel like home.

"That doesn't deny the first question!"

"Are you jealous?"

She could swear she saw Sora in his grin. It was hard to even distinguish one from the other these days. She shook her head.

"Can you ever be serious?"

Sora waved to the bottle as it got out of sight, out of reach. His laughter could be heard, clearly, from the spot Kairi and Riku were on the dry sand. He let out a positive exclamation they couldn't quite understand.

Riku smiled, never taking his eyes off of him.

_Maybe he doesn't want to be._

"Now we wait!" Sora announced and he let himself fall on his back, onto the sand, beside Riku. He closed his eyes, just enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Riku smiled, never taking his eyes off of him.

_Or maybe that's all he ever wants._

"Well, let's not waste the day away waiting for the answer!" Kairi blocked the sun on Sora's face, and soon those bright eyes were looking at her. "Let's go meet Selphie and the others!"

"In a minute, Kai!" He flashed her a grin, and it was gone as soon as it came. He feigned sleep.

Kairi rolled her eyes.

"_Right._ Just stay there being lazy then." She laughed, and started walking away. Over her shoulder, she called, "We'll be waiting for you two!"

"Yeah!" They both answered. And soon, not a single sound but that of the sea and the breeze.

Sometimes it felt odd not having any shadow to fight against.

"I'm sleepy." Sora rolled to lie on his side, his hands brushing lightly against Riku's, which lied on the sand, supporting him.

"No, you just get terribly lazy when it's too hot. Now get up and go with Kairi."

"…You're not moving either."

He chuckled.

"Just go, Sora! You shouldn't make her wait."

Gazes locked on each other. Sora seemed like he was going to say something, but in the end, didn't. Sitting up, he stretched. It was almost like a habit now. Like he was always trying to recover from some deep fatigue. Maybe the island was making him rusty. Maybe he _was_ being too lazy.

But Riku wasn't moving either.

"I'll be going in a minute."

He ruffled his friend's hair, making it messier than it already was. The bangs framing his face were slightly moist with sweat, but his hands still touched soft, soft hair. With a laugh, Sora backed away from the playful touch, and got up, going in the same direction their female friend had gone.

Kairi could never understand.

Because she could smile when Sora wasn't around.

Because she hadn't taken the blindfold from his eyes.

Because she had wanted to be found.


	3. three

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**_t_** h r e e

* * *

"Your hair is too long."

He brushed Riku's bangs away from his eyes, trying to place them behind his ears. But the silky hair would soon fall back and cover those brilliant eyes. Sora frowned in frustration. Riku raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"I really don't want to hear hair tips from _you._"

Sora stuck his tongue out at him.

Trying to dismiss it as another childish behavior from his best friend was surprisingly hard.

"It's covering your eyes too much! You really need to cut it. Maybe like it was before…"

It wasn't one of his childish behaviors to look away. It was an uncharacteristic behavior, from the Sora of _before._ But it was a gesture that signified recollection of unwanted memories. Memories of pain, and sorrow, and helplessness, and betrayal, and disappointment. From the Sora of _then_, it meant struggling against darkness, all over again.

"It's like wanting to catch up on time that we're never getting back." His smile was sad. The glimmer in his eyes was sad. He wanted him to smile like before, to let go of those reminiscences, to be the Sora he always had been.

But he was another Sora, then. And he, too, was another Riku.

His thumb pressed gently against his temples, and Sora's hand moved instantly to cover his. His house was colder than he had remembered, but Sora's hand was warm. It was always warm.

"Sora…" His voice was a whisper, and Sora let out a weak laugh.

"I know, I'm being stupid. But…"

He was getting out of his reach, all over again. No matter how much time they spent together, no matter how many good memories they tried to make to make up for the lost time, it just wasn't _enough_. Nothing was. He felt him slipping through his fingers, and sometimes Sora, the Sora of _then_, would look at him with a strange glance that gave him the impression he felt the same.

There was no hard thinking, no organized thoughts as he closed the gap between them, robbing Sora of his breath. There was simply that painful tug at his heart, a faint hint of desperation, of trying to pull him back, back to him.

And Sora's hand never left his own. And his lips covered his, in a perfect picture.

And soon they moved closer, and closer, and the grip they had on each other was crushing. And their teeth clashed together at one point, and they needed to breathe, but they _didn't want to_, if it meant letting go, if it meant losing contact.

Always a contact.

Seconds, minutes, hours. Time was inconstant as they broke apart, panting, flushing, shaking.

They said nothing.

Because nothing really needed to be said.


	4. four

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_**f **_o u r

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"When are you going to tell me?"

He faced her with a blank stare.

"Huh?"

"You and Riku. When do you plan on telling me what's going on?"

He looked away, playing with the straw of his milkshake before taking a sip.

"Nothing is going on."

"You're lying."

He faced her with a hurt expression. Her frown deepened because she noticed it was genuine.

"I'm not."

She sighed.

"You two are together."

His nod was not hesitant.

"We're together too, Kairi."

Her head hung low, and she took a deep breath. Never the brightest.

"You two are in love."

The way the sunset reflected on his eyes made golden swirl with the brightest of blues. It also reflected on his face, but it was so different now, better shaped, that for a moment, she thought she didn't know the Sora of then at all.

"Yes."

She touched his hand, and it was not as soft as she remembered. Maybe the Keyblade had made it tougher, stronger. Maybe she had never noticed him become a young man. And it had nothing to do with the time they spent apart.

"Then why won't you tell me what's going on between you two?"

The smile he offered was very characteristic, very honest, and very _Sora_.

"Because nothing's going on."

She looked forth between his eyes, between his smile, between the firm hold he had on her hand.

_Never_ the brightest.

His eyes moved away again.

Never so lost.

"Hey, Kairi?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you too."

It came out as an after-thought.

She bit her lower lip so she wouldn't answer, "It's not the same."


	5. five

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_**f **_i v e

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He never said a word after his lips kissed everywhere on his face, as they left him breathless over and over again, and as his hands caressed him, running through his hair in a steady rhythm until his eyes started getting heavy and his warmth led him into slumber. And the next morning, when they woke up in each other's arms and with no one to witness their embrace but the morning sun, he never said a word either.

The truth was, he was afraid.

But not afraid of that feeling that consumed him, and that feeling that made the other hold him so tight.

He was afraid that if he said anything, the spell would be broken. As if Maleficent would take Riku away from him again, and that would be the end of their story. Even if he beat the villains once, twice, thrice in the past. Even if he had fought against the darkness of heart, and the darkness of the vessel left behind. Even if he had saved the princess, and even if he had come home safe, he was afraid.

Maybe he wasn't afraid of unrequited love. Maybe he was afraid of _being loved back._

That must have been the reason why his love for Kairi didn't last, even if he had promised her _forever_. A silly thing, to promise forever. Not even light or darkness lived forever, so why would love?

But he was just trying to come up with excuses for his cowardice at this point. Who was him to mess with forever?

Right then, at that moment, forever felt a lot like _now_.

"Hey, Sora?"

"Hmm?"

"I want to go to Neverland with you."

Sora's smile met his eyes. Full, relieved, content.

Riku was never a sap like him. But his words always meant a whole lot more when he chose the right ones.

_Getting past yesterday to reach tomorrow._

"We'll go. I promise."

Their fingers danced, intertwined. Their fingertips seemed to kiss as they were too busy with words.

"Hey, Riku?"

"Yeah?"

Riku was never a sap like him.

And that was the reason he spoke those three words for the both of them.


	6. final

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_**f**_ i n a l

* * *

"It's here!"

Half of him was surprised, half of him was relieved upon the sight of the bottle in Sora's hand. He should know better than to doubt Sora's words and beliefs, and the King's seal on that letter was proof of it.

"We're going to Neverland!"

He laughed.

"Sora, you haven't even opened it yet."

And he had just told himself to never doubt Sora. Maybe doubting was a bad habit he would have to surpass.

But Sora was still grinning.

"I already know what it says!"

He hugged his middle. Sora was sensitive about his height, sometimes complaining about how he was being left behind while everyone else was growing up. Kairi would laugh and comfort him, saying she was still shorter than him, but he would still whine and mention how she was a girl and girls were supposed to be shorter anyway.

But the way he knew exactly how to hold him, resting his chin on his chest and looking up with those sky-blue eyes always made him think that he was just perfect.

_Maybe nothing has changed._

Sometimes he would think Sora had too much of a sappy influence on him.

"We're going to Neverland, and we're going to _fly!_"

He laughed, kissing his forehead as Sora took the letter out of the bottle and inspected it.

_Or maybe everything has changed._

Neverland.

Where you and I can stay like this, forever.

Never, ever bothering with the outside world.

And there, we can fly.

All you need is trust and a little pixie dust.

_**N**_ e v e r l a n d

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Thank you all that took their time not only to read, but to give me a few words of feedback. Even the slightest words brighten my day and make me feel that all the writing I make is not meaningless. To Amane Bakura, who has reviewed all my Kingdom Hearts stories and chapters so far - _thank you, for all the encouraging and sweet words._ To everyone else, I hope you enjoyed and may we meet again at another time, another story.


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